Russi Taylor Narrations
101 Dalmatians (1996) (Read-Along) *''"Hello, dearies! My name is Nanny, and I work for a lovely young woman named Anita. Actually, I helped raise Anita when she was a girl, and I went back to work for her and her husband, Roger, right around the time their family grew to include 101 Dalmatians! It's a wonderful story, I'll tell you all about it. You can read along with me if you'd like. Every time you hear this sound, it's time to turn the page. Let's begin."'' *"Every morning, Roger, a young American fellow living in London, was awakened by his dog, a Dalmatian named Pongo. Pongo would shut off the alarm clock, turn on the bathwater, start the coffee maker and fetch the milk from the front porch. Afterwards, he and Roger would go to the park. One day in the park, Pongo visited with his dog friends while Roger read the newspaper. The day's headline was a terrible story of a tiger murdered at the zoo for its beautiful pelt. It made Roger sad. He couldn't imagine he would do such a horrible thing." *''"Across town, Anita wondered the very same thing. Anita worked as a fashion designer for the glamorous, but selfish Cruella DeVil. Their theme was supposed to be tiger stripes, but that day, Cruella noticed Anita drawing a gown with a Dalmatian-spotted print. Cruella glanced from the gown to a picture of Perdy, Anita's Dalmatian, on the desk. She snatched up the drawing and sketched in some changes. Cruella wasn't drawing a printed gown. She was drawing a fur coat!"'' *''"Now, Roger designs video games for a living. At the time, he was working on one called "Fetch!" about a Dalmatian playing with a bright red ball. That morning, he met with a video game company that didn't think the game's chubby little dog catcher was a scary enough bad guy. They sent Roger back to the drawing board. Outside, Pongo, waiting patiently for Roger, spotted Anita pedaling by on her bicycle with Perdy running beside her. Pongo became very excited at the sight of the beautiful Perdy. Roger came out and headed for his own bicycle. He could barely control Pongo, who was already hopelessly in love."'' *''"Roger tried to head for home, but Pongo's leash was attached to the handlebars, and he wanted to follow Perdy in the other direction. The terrified Roger lost control of his bike, and Pongo dragged him on a high speed chase. They wove dangerously through traffic and sent passers-by scattering everywhere as they raced after Anita and Perdy towards the park. Just as they entered the park's gates, the leash broke. Pongo scampered after Perdy, but the runaway bike rammed into a bench and poor Roger was launched into the pond."'' *"Wet and sore, Roger wobbled up on his broken bike and thinking Perdy was Pongo, grabbed her leash. Anita was flabbergasted! The nerve of that man. Luckily, Pongo appeared. Roger apologized, and it all got sorted out. The dogs weren't shy, they cuddled together right away. Roger blushed and Anita smiled. It was obvious the two dogs were already in love. They weren't the only ones. It didn't take long before Roger and Anita followed suit, and they all got married in a double wedding." *''"Roger and Anita, Pongo and Perdy settled into a comfortable flat––or apartment as Americans say––and invited me to come work for them, which I did. I soon noticed that Perdy had the sweet, gentle look of pregnancy. Anita gazed at Perdy dreamily, and I was startled to discover that. Anita had the very same expression. Soon after, Cruella visited. She admired the dogs, but they disliked her right away, as did Roger. Cruella heard about the mothers-to-be, and asked to be told as soon as the birth occurred. Anita thought she meant her baby, but Cruella made it clear, she was talking to the puppies."'' *''"On a stormy night in late autumn, Pongo and Roger waited anxiously in the living room while Anita and I watched over Perdy in the kitchen. Her time had come. She gave birth to fifteen puppies. Pongo was the proudest father I've ever seen, and Roger was just as proud. Immediately afterwards, Cruella swept in. We were shocked. She wanted to buy the puppies and take them off in a bag that very minute! She offered to pay a lot of money, but it didn't matter. When Anita refused to sell them, Cruella fired her on the spot."'' *"The puppies grew fast. Then one night Cruella's men, Horace and Jasper, watched secretly until Roger and Anita took Pongo and Perdy for their daily walk. They forced their way in, locked me in a closet and stole the puppies. Oh, it was horrible. Jasper carried the wriggling, squirming bag of crying puppies out to their lorry––or truck as Americans say. A bulldog and his owner were passing by, and the bulldog sensed that something was very wrong. He began to bark. Perdy and Pongo heard the bulldog from across the park and raced back to the house. They were too late. The puppies were gone." *''"Jasper and Horace stopped at a small village inn to telephone Cruella. While they were inside, Wizzer the bravest and craftiest puppy, escaped from the bag in the back of the lorry. Wizzer barked and Kipper, a little terrier sleeping in a doorway nearby, answered him. The sad little Wizzer told Kipper the puppies' dreadful story. When Horace and Jasper returned and drove off, Kipper ran after them. He chased the lorry out of town and down the road, until he saw it stop at a big, crumbling house––the Manor DeVil."'' *''"Of course, poor Perdy and Pongo were very upset. Pongo went up to the roof and started calling loudly into the dark, starry night. He listened, and from far away, he got a reply from another dog. Pongo answered back, telling the story of his dognapped puppies. Not understanding dog language, and thinking poor Pongo would wake half the neighborhood, Roger came up and dragged Pongo off the roof. But the news was already traveling. From one dog to another, Pongo's desperate message was passed across London and into the countryside."'' *''"Pongo's message finally reached Fogey, an old sheepdog on a farm near the Manor DeVil. He had just gathered all the animals to the barn when Kipper rushed in. The two dogs told the puppies' story to the other animals. The animals hatched a plan. Kipper dashed off to find the puppies, wnile other animals went to distract Horace and Jasper. Fogey sent a return message back up the dog chain to Pongo and Perdy. They heard the message and took off for the country without a moment's delay."'' *''"The dognapping story made all the newspapers, and Cruella had the nerve to call Anita and tell her how sorry she was. She was trying to make herself appear innocent, but I didn't buy it, and neither did Roger. Sensing this, Cruella decided to have the puppies done away with that night. She had more than just Perdy and Pongo's fifteen. She had been stealing Dalmatian puppies for weeks, and now had a total of ninety-nine! She modeled her beautiful new tiger pelt in the mirror. Soon, she thought, she would have a magnificent spotted coat to go with it."'' *''"Meanwhile, Kipper sneaked into the old, run-down Manor DeVil. He sniffed his way downstairs, moving quietly so as not to disturb Horace and Jasper in the nearby drawing room. When he found the library locked, he crept in through a broken heating vent. The room was filled with Dalmatian puppies! Kipper rounded up as many as he could into a long line that led out through the vent. But, one of the puppies knocked over a lamp. They heard the men coming to check on the noise, and Kipper herded the puppies back into the library just in time."'' *''"Perdy and Pongo were hot on the trail of their puppies. Anita was so worried about them, but I had faith in those dogs. Anita also couldn't believe that Cruella was the dognapper––until she remembered Cruella's drawing of the Dalmatian-spotted coat! Suddenly, she knew--Cruella was going to kill the puppies. We raced over to Cruella's London house, but she already left for the Manor DeVil. When the police arrived and searched the house, they found the tiger pelt. Anita was obviously right."'' *''"Back at the Manor DeVil, Horace and Jasper were surprised by a knock at the door. The animals were carrying out their plan. A woodpecker was knocking, while squirrels gnawed on wires in their lorry's engine and raccoons honked the horn. The men rushed out to shoo the animals away. Meanwhile, Kipper sneaked the puppies back out of the library and up the stairs. Horace and Jasper returned and saw what was happening. They couldn't believe their eyes, and took off after the puppies."'' *''"Kipper and the puppies stampeded down the upstairs hall to the foot of the attic stairs. The wall by the stairs had a broken window in it, and the puppies slipped and slid over slick ice that had blown in and covered the floor. Forming a long line, they carefully climbed the attic stairs and crawled out onto the snowy roof. Jasper spotted Wizzer at the end of the line and sprinted towards him. But Jasper tripped on a loose floorboard that was starting to rot. He fell through the decaying wood, crashing onto a pool table into the room below. The crash caused a huge buffalo head to drop off the wall and pin him to the table."'' *''"Up on the roof, Kipper slid the puppies down a rain spout one at a time to Fogey waiting on the ground below. Wizzer lagged behind, and waited for Horace at the bottom of the attic stairs. Wizzer yelped, attracting Horace's attention. The big man saw the pup and charged after him, missing Jasper's hole in the floor. But when Horace hit the ice at the bottom of the stairs, he fell on his back and sailed out the broken window onto a nearby frozen pond."'' *''"Kipper dragged Wizzer out to the roof and rolled him down the spout to safety. Then Fogey led the puppies off through the snow to the barn. Kipper turned to leave, but Jasper, bruised and battered, was waiting for him. Kipper backed away from Jasper until the little dog was teetering right on the edge of the roof. Just then, Cruella's sleek white car pulled up. Jasper panicked. Here he was, tattered and beaten on the roof, and the puppies had escaped. He was right to be worried because Cruella was furious when she heard what had happened. She ordered Jasper to get down and catch the puppies at once."'' *''"Jasper rounded up the trembling, frozen Horace, and they tried to drive off in the lorry. However, the squirrels had done a good job gnawing on the engine wires. It barely ran. When Horace tried to turn on the heat, fire leapt out of the vents. The men jumped from the smoking cab just seconds before the whole lorry blew up in a tremendous explosion! Meanwhile, Pongo and Perdy were racing across the countryside towards the farm, with the aid of friendly animals along the way."'' *''"When at last they arrived at the barn, what a joyful reunion they had with their fifteen puppies, and eighty-three others as well! But Cruella was also hot on the trail of the runaway puppies. She saw their tracks, and drove right up to the barn. Luckily, a crow spied her and sounded the alarm. Pongo and Perdy quickly herded the puppies out an opening in the barn's back wall as Cruella determined picked her way through the road."'' *''"Just as she got to the barn door, the crow swooped down and ripped Cruella's fur hat off her head. Angry, she peered through a peephole in the door, but was sorry she did. The horse at the other side kicked it, knocking Cruella backward into the mud. But Cruella didn't give up. She called to the puppies in the sweetest voice she could. She checked the rafters, and was pelted with eggs from roosting chickens. A little tail wagged from the hayloft. Certain that she'd found a puppy, Cruella yanked on it and a big, fat pig flopped down on top of her."'' *''"Back at the Manor DeVil, a lone puppy woke up in the library and looked around. He'd been left behind! The puppy started to cry. At the same time, Cruella, standing in the barn door, was horrified to see a line of dogs heading off into the distance. For all her misery, the Dalmatians still had escaped. Just as she was leaving, she spotted her hat on a windowsill. Cruella stumbled towards it, but dropped through the open floor right into a vat of old molasses. Slowly, slowly, she sank into the sticky goo."'' *''"The police arrived, and the worn-out Jasper and Horace gave themselves up happily. The paddy wagon looked so safe and warm that Horace climbed right into it himself. The police were amazed to see Perdy and Pongo leading ninety-eight puppies into town. They were followed shortly by Kipper, limping wearily, carrying the pup that had been left behind in the library, by the scruff of the neck. One hundred and one dalmatians! At the farm, the horse booted the filthy, sticky Cruella right out of the barn and into the pigsty, just in time to be arrested by the police."'' *''"And so, all was well. Inspired by the ordeal, Roger quickly created a new version of "Fetch!" using Cruella as the villain. It became a huge hit. Roger and Anita bought the Manor DeVil, fixed it up and moved in. By the next year, their baby daughter was born. They were so happy––a new baby, a new house, a whole new life. They invited me to come with them, which I did. Oh, and they bought the Dalmatians, of course…and their fifteen children......and eighty-four stepchildren…and their children....and so on...and so on...and so on..."'' Category:Narrations